Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,26

that the people inside the alley weren’t there to hurt anyone.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Chloe said as the six adults inside the alley huddled behind a large dumpster.

“We ain’t got nowhere else to go,” one of them, an elderly man with a large white beard, said, his eyes fixed nervously on Tego. “We tried to get into a shelter, but they’re full.”

“If Avalon find you, they will hurt you,” Layla said.

“They don’t scare me,” a middle-aged woman said grimly. “Just bullies. And I’ve dealt with bullies my whole life.”

“These bullies will ensure whatever they do hurts,” Tarron said.

Judgement stepped forward. “You are not safe here,” she said, her voice calm. It was the most words Layla had heard from her in one sentence for several hours.

“Then where do you suggest we should go?” a younger man asked hopelessly, his knees pulled up to his chest.

Layla looked around the alleyway and saw a metal fire door further along. Approaching, she took control of the lock and forced the door open before stepping inside.

“Anyone home?” she shouted, looking around the abandoned restaurant. Tables had been left untouched; Layla assumed that everyone who had been here at the time of the cordon had been told to evacuate quickly. She found the register, took a piece of paper and pen, and wrote, People needed shelter. If they used anything, contact Roberto Cortez. She wrote his phone number below. Roberto would forgive her.

She found everyone still outside and explained about the restaurant.

“What if the people who own it come back?” the lady asked.

“I left them a note,” Layla told her. “Also, just stay there for tonight. I’ll make sure the police know you’re there, and hopefully it will be okay. Basically, don’t have some sort of mass party, and it should be fine. It’s safer than staying out here.”

“You did a good thing,” Judgement said when those in the alleyway had moved into the restaurant.

“I try,” Layla said. “You okay?”

Judgement smiled fiercely. “I want to rip and tear,” she said, flexing her fingers. “I want to find my sister. I am angry. I wish to hurt a great number of our enemy.”

“You’ll get your chance,” Layla said. “We all will.”

“I am not used to working in a team,” Judgement said. “I was trained to kill alone. It is an odd feeling, but not an unpleasant one.”

Chloe exited the restaurant with her finger against her ear, activating her radio. Everyone wore one, but they were mainly used for communication between team members. Unless an outside person contacted one of them personally.

“Persephone wants to know if we can move toward Georgetown,” Chloe said. “There’s fierce fighting there, and the KOA are trying to gain entry to an apartment block. It’ll be a massacre if they get inside.”

“Who’s protecting it?” Piper asked.

“There’s a number of rebellion members on the way, but it looks like this is another KOA splinter group. The people living there are protecting their homes, but they’re outmanned and outgunned.”

“How do we get there quickly?” Layla asked.

“Persephone is sending an armored personnel carrier to take us,” Chloe said.

Thirty seconds later the dark-green APC arrived, and everyone piled in the back. The female driver and male passenger told them they’d heard that the assault on the residential block in Georgetown sounded bad, but then everything Layla had seen had sounded bad, so the definition of awful had swung wildly.

Layla heard the gunfire well before she saw anything of the assault on the three seven-story buildings, which were set in a horseshoe pattern. The actual number of assailants appeared to be small, certainly much lower than Layla had expected, and they were hunkered down behind large SUVs while several people inside shot at them from the windows high above.

The driver stopped the APC and used the attached microphone to demand that all KOA members surrender and relinquish their weapons. The shooting stopped inside the building as three KOA dropped their guns and stood, arms up high, while several more made a run for it down the dark streets.

Layla and her team got out of the APC and apprehended the KOA members before taking them to the apartment complex, where they were greeted by three uniformed police officers—a man and two women. One of the women was bleeding from a head wound, and Piper sat her down inside the foyer to assess the damage.

Layla turned back to the APC. “Park up and get in here,” she said.

The two soldiers did, then joined the team, police, and half dozen